Tag Archive for 'nature names'

San Diego Family Magazine Review!

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Amanda Barden
on May 23, 2009
in Book Reviews and Website Announcements
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Eileen Cornish, a freelance writer for San Diego Family Magazine, wrote a nice review of Baby Names Made Easy for the magazine’s spring/summer edition.

“I have three sons but I never tire of reading baby name books. In Baby Names Made Easy($15, Simon and Schuster, 2009) author Amanda Elizabeth Barden organizes more than 20,000 traditional to trendy names into categories ranging from Nature to Numbers and Animals to Insects. With more than 40 chapters, the book organizes names by category with meanings or definitions listed after each. Perhaps more people would name their girls Agatha if they knew it meant good and honorable in Greek, or Alma, meaning nourishing and kind in Latin. How about Thaddeus, meaning beloved and adored in Arabic?”

You can check out the whole article here and the other books she reviewed!

 

♥  Amanda

 

If you have baby name questions for me, email me at amanda@amandabarden.com.

Your question might appear in a future edition of Ask Amanda.

 

 

 

ARBOR DAY — A CELEBRATION OF BABY NAMES!

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Amanda Barden
on April 23, 2009
in Baby Name Suggestions & Lists
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Arbor Day is the day we celebrate babies named after trees. Not officially, of course, but unofficially here on my blog.

There are some celebrities out there named after trees:

Ashton Kutcher
Sylvester Stallone
Estée Lauder
Björk
Burl Ives
Lorenzo Lamas
Lorne Green
Axel Rose
Lief Garrett
Yves Saint Laurent

 

There’s also a few celebrity babies whose names have tree-meanings:

Hazel, daughter of Julia Roberts & Danny Moder

Evalyne, daughter of Cassidy Black & Dierks Bentley

Oliver, son of Jennifer Lynn Stone & Fred Savage

Oliver, son of Allison & Taylor Hawkins

Olivia, daughter of Joely Fisher & Christopher Duddy

Willow, daughter of Michelle Monaghan & Peter White

 

If you like the idea of nature names, there are some really great tree names to consider on this Arbor Day. Here is a list of some names whose meanings are related to trees:

 

GIRL NAMES

Alani, Aspen, Ayla, Chan, Elana, Estée, Geneva, Hazel, Holly, Idra, Kaya, Laurel, Lina, Matsuko, Olivia, Samara, Verena, Willow

 

BOY NAMES

Ashton, Axel, Barker, Cormac, Derry, Elan, Ellery, Ewan, Hollis, Lennox, Lorenzo, Oakley, Oleander, Oliver, Palmer, Rowan, Silas, Vernon, York

 

All of these names (and many more!) can be found in the Flowers, Trees & Living Things chapter in my book. Check it out!

Post a comment and let me know about your favorite Arbor Day name! Also, if you can, plant a tree and celebrate Arbor Day the way it was truly intended. Click here for the official Arbor Day website.

 

♥  Amanda

 

 

Baby Names of the Day & Golden Gate Park

Published
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Amanda Barden
on April 19, 2009
in My Life
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 Today was one of those rare days in San Francisco where temperatures soared all the way up into the 80s!

San Francisco isn’t known for its warm weather, so I took full advantage and walked over to Golden Gate Park. It seemed like nearly half of the city was gathered there to soak up the sun, play Frisbee and people watch.

I’m never one for soaking up the sun, so I found myself a nice place in the shade and plopped down with my iced caramel macchiato (delicious!) and spread out all my blog writing supplies (notebook, cute pink pen, Social Security printouts, Baby Names Made Easy, cute blue pen). I was determined to get some good work done…

Turns out it was kind of hard to concentrate though because the people watching was just too good. Hands down the best conversation snippet I overheard went like this:

GIRL #1: …so he goes and has a baby and then decides to totally desire me.

GIRL #2: I don’t get him at all.

GIRL #1: Me neither!

(Girl #1, if you’re reading this, don’t waste your time trying to figure him out. He’s definitely not worth it!)

There was also a pretty talented group of Frisbee players who managed to hold drinks in one hand and play Frisbee with the other. Never having been good at Frisbee myself, it was sort of riveting to watch.

Anyhow, the beautiful weather did get me thinking about springtime names and I made some picks for Baby Name of the Day:

 

GIRL NAME OF THE DAY:

ABRIELLE — a French version of the name April

 

BOY NAME OF THE DAY:

KELL — Scandinavian for “spring”

 

I think these are both cool name picks. They each strike that balance a lot of parents are looking for these days — not too popular, but not too weird. You can find out more about each of these names in the Seasons & Time chapter of my book.

How do you like the Names of the Day? Love them or think the sun’s gone to my head? Post a comment and let me know (I also accept Frisbee tips)!

  

♥  Amanda

   

 

 

Celebrity Baby Name Alert: Petal Blossom Rainbow (Jamie Oliver)

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Amanda Barden
on April 3, 2009
in Celebrity Baby Names
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Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver and wife Jools continued their floral naming tradition with third daughter PETAL BLOSSOM RAINBOW. Petal was born very early this morning at 2:46 am. She has two big sisters, Poppy Honey (7) and Daisy Boo (5). You can read more at The Sun website.
 
I’ve read criticism in the past over the Oliver’s naming choices. I think it’s due more to the middle names than first names alone — there’s nothing too unusual about Poppy, Daisy and Petal, but when you throw in Honey, Boo and Blossom Rainbow the result is a little more off-beat. I’m OK with that though. I think it’s fun to be a little more creative with middle names. Plus, flower names are very trendy now and, personally, I’m a big fan. I’ve always found flower names sweet and ultra-feminine. What do you think? I’ve put together a list of some other celebrities who used flower names for their newborns.
 


CELEBRITY BABY FLOWER NAMES:

 

Bluebell Madonna (Geri Halliwell)

 

Charlie Tamara Tulip (Rebecca Romijn & Jerry O’Connell)

 

Daisy True (Meg Ryan)

 

Iris Sura (Renee O’Connor)

 

Jasmine Innes (Cristen Chin & Nigel Barker)

 

Kadence Clover (Lhotse Merriam & Tony Hawk)

 

Lily Aerin (Jennifer Stone & Fred Savage)

 

Lily Aster (Dara Kravitz & Gilbert Gottfried)

 

Lotus Marie (Rain Pryor & Yale Partlow)

 

Violet Maye (Jordyn Blum & Dave Grohl)

 

Violet Anne (Jennifer Garner & Ben Affleck)

 

Lily-Rose Melody (Vanessa Paradis & Johnny Depp)
 
 


AND THEN THERE ARE THE ROSES, WHO DESERVE A LIST ALL THEIR OWN (note all these Roses — and one Rosie – are middle names):

 

Alabama Gypsy Rose (Drea de Matteo & Shooter Jennings)

 

Matilda Rose (Michelle Williams & Heath Ledger)

 

Brighton Rose (Joya Tillem & Jon Favreau)

 

Dolly Rebecca Rose (Rebecca Romijn & Jerry O’Connell)

 

Harper Rosie (Martie & Gareth Maguire)

 

Johnnie Rose (Melissa Etheridge & Tammy Lynn Michaels)

 

Leal Rose (Tamia & Grand Hill)

 

Maggie Rose (Tracey & Jon Stewart)

 

Seraphina Rose Elizabeth (Jennifer Garner & Ben AfflecK)

Emerson Rose (Teri Hatcher & Jon Tenney)

 

What I really want to know is what Jamie and Jools would have named the baby if it was a boy! Do you have any suggestions for them? If so, let me know!
 
♥  Amanda

 

 

Mountain-y Baby Names

Published
by
Amanda Barden
on March 29, 2009
in Baby Name Suggestions & Lists and My Life
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I escaped city life for the weekend and headed to the mountains for a little R&R. What I’ve learned so far is that you can take the girl out of the city, but you can’t take the city out of the girl. I wasn’t here 30 minutes before checking my email…and now here I am updating my blog! But all this mountain air got me thinking about “mountain-y” baby names — names that have “mountain” in the meaning. There are a few obvious picks, but quite a few that you wouldn’t suspect at all.

All these names can be found with their meaning and origins in my Geography, Topography & Locations and On The Map chapters. Drop me a note and let me know your favorites, least favorites, best tips for mountain living, anything you want to share…Here’s the list I came up with:

GIRLS

 Aspen, Glenna, Mineko, Olympia, Parvati, Zaltana

 

 BOYS

Beaumont, Berg, Everest, Glen, Huntley, Huxley, Kip, Kiri, Knox, Lamont, Landon, Orestes

 

 GIRL OR BOY

Fuji, Himalaya, Kenya, Montana, Nevada, Vail

 

I think I’ll take a walk down to the lake now and enjoy the rest of my vacation.

♥  Amanda